Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele, 'Key & Peele'

Matt Hoyle / Comedy Central

The first thing Keegan-Michael Key, left, and Jordan Peele want viewers to know is that they are biracial. They announce it to a live audience in the pilot for their new Comedy Central sketch series, "Key & Peele," and credit their backgrounds with bringing a fresh perspective to their political, culturally literate humor. "We grew up in between worlds, without a clear definition of who we are," Peele said. "In all of our racial material, there's an underlying acknowledgment of how absurd the whole idea of [seeing] these physical traits as differences between human beings is." Lil Wayne, Gordon Ramsay and even Ancestry.com are all fodder for the show, but Peele's Barack Obama impression is bound to attract the most election-year attention. Although Peele unsuccessfully auditioned to play the president on "Saturday Night Live" in 2008, his portrayal of Obama has proved popular in a series of videos on the website Funny or Die. Peele and Key, a Second City alum, have performed together as part of the Groundlings' "The Black Version" since leaving "MADtv"; their runs on that sketch comedy series coincided for more than five seasons, beginning in 2004. Peele earned an Emmy nomination in 2008 for "Sad Fitty Cent," a song parody he cowrote for the show. After Key's sitcom "Gary Unmarried" was canceled last year and a pilot Peele shot wasn't picked up, the friends jumped at the chance to collaborate again on "Key & Peele." -- Judy Berman

The first thing Keegan-Michael Key, left, and Jordan Peele want viewers to know is that they are biracial. They announce it to a live audience in the pilot for their new Comedy Central sketch series, "Key & Peele," and credit their backgrounds with bringing a fresh perspective to their political, culturally literate humor. "We grew up in between worlds, without a clear definition of who we are," Peele said. "In all of our racial material, there's an underlying acknowledgment of how absurd the whole idea of [seeing] these physical traits as differences between human beings is." Lil Wayne, Gordon Ramsay and even Ancestry.com are all fodder for the show, but Peele's Barack Obama impression is bound to attract the most election-year attention. Although Peele unsuccessfully auditioned to play the president on "Saturday Night Live" in 2008, his portrayal of Obama has proved popular in a series of videos on the website Funny or Die. Peele and Key, a Second City alum, have performed together as part of the Groundlings' "The Black Version" since leaving "MADtv"; their runs on that sketch comedy series coincided for more than five seasons, beginning in 2004. Peele earned an Emmy nomination in 2008 for "Sad Fitty Cent," a song parody he cowrote for the show. After Key's sitcom "Gary Unmarried" was canceled last year and a pilot Peele shot wasn't picked up, the friends jumped at the chance to collaborate again on "Key & Peele." -- Judy Berman